The present invention relates to feeder apparatus, e.g. feeding devices for providing food, water, dietary supplements, and other forms of sustenance or medicines to pets and/or other animals, housed in confine. Animal owners/caretakers house some animals e.g. birds, reptiles, rodents, mammals and other relatively common animals and/or relatively exotic animals, in the confines of a physical enclosure. Common physical enclosures used to house animals include rigid wire cages, tension wire cages, Plexiglass® acrylic enclosures, and others.
Animals require regular access to food, water, dietary supplements, and other forms of sustenance or medicines (hereinafter referred to as foodstuff) while housed in confine. Methods of distributing foodstuff, and the structure of apparatus adapted to distribute foodstuff varies as dictated by animal species in confine.
As one example, confined non-flight animals, e.g. reptiles, rodents, mammals and other animals which move about by generally non-flight means, can be fed via feeding devices located on the floor of the confining physical enclosure. Accordingly, non-flight animals are frequently administered foodstuff via feeding devices, e.g. bowls, troughs and other devices, which sit on the floor of the confining physical structure.
As another example, confined flight animals, e.g. bird and/or other animals which enjoy perching elevated above the floor of the confining physical enclosure, may prefer consuming foodstuff at an elevated location. Accordingly, some flight animals are administered foodstuff via feeding devices which are elevated above the floor of the confining physical structure. Often, the feeding devices are attached to an inside wall of the confining physical structure so as to present foodstuff to the confined animal at an elevated level.
An animal owner/caretaker must routinely perform maintenance tasks to ensure the health of the confined animal. Some routine maintenance tasks include reaching inside the confining physical structure to fill the feeding devices with foodstuff, and/or to clean/maintain the feeding devices. In the alternative, the animal owner/caretaker must routinely reach inside the confining physical structure, to remove the feeding devices, in order to fill the feeding devices with foodstuff, and/or to clean/maintain the feeding devices outside of the confines of the physical structure.
In some situations, the animal owner/caretaker may prefer to not reach inside the confining physical structure while performing the aforementioned maintenance tasks. For example, some animals kept in confinement are dangerous and/or deadly. An animal owner/caretaker may prefer to avoid reaching inside of the confining physical structure with a dangerous and/or deadly animal. As another example, some confined animals are relatively quick and/or agile and thus may be relatively more prone to escape. An animal owner/caretaker may prefer to avoid reaching inside of the confining physical structure, and thus providing an opportunity for a relatively quick and/or agile animal to escape.
Some known feeding devices are accessible to the animal owner/caretaker from outside of the confining physical structure. Conventional feeding devices of this type mount to a side wall of the confining physical structure. Typically, these feeding devices have at least one part which can be pivoted into and out of the interior of that confining physical structure thus to provide access to the feeding device from outside the confining structure.
However, many confined animals pick at, scratch at, bite at, or otherwise disturb objects inside of their confining physical structure, including parts of a feeding device. Accordingly, parts of a feeding structure which pivot inside of a confining physical structure are often subject to such animal induced abuse, and thus experience more damage, and quicker wear than parts of the feeding structure which remain on the outside of a feeding structure. In addition, picking at, scratching at, biting at, or otherwise disturbing parts of a feeding device inside of a confining physical structure can cause injury to the animal or damage to the feeding structure which may enable the animal to escape.
It is an object of this invention to provide an animal feeding device which mounts to the exterior of a confining physical structure.
It is a more specific object to provide an animal feeding device which enables a user to avoid reaching inside an animal confining physical structure while the user performs feeding related maintenance tasks.
It is yet another object to provide an animal feeding device which enables a user to selectively prevent an animal from leaving the confining physical structure through the animal feeding device, while the user performs feeding related maintenance tasks.